People come into contact with many surfaces in their normal everyday lives. The propensity for surfaces to harbor viruses, bacteria, dust, dander, soil, grease, hair, and like materials is well known. As people come into contact with surfaces as they move about, they are exposed to these nefarious materials. Exposure to viruses and bacteria can result in illness. Exposure to dust, dander, and pet hair can cause respiratory distress. Exposure to soil and grease can result in stained clothing. As such, devices for cleaning surfaces are desirable.
One common device provided to consumers for cleaning surfaces is a premoistened cleaning wipe. Such wipes are commonly single layers of a nonwoven fibrous material, the fibrous material being cellulosic or polyolefin material.
Typically wipes are packaged in a container in which the wipes are stacked one on top of the other with a face of the wipe facing and in contact with the closed end of the container in which the wipes are stored. Depending on the capillarity of the fibrous structure constituting the wipe, wipes at the top of the stack may not be fully wetted with the liquid cleaning composition. Cleaning composition can freely drain driven by the force of gravity. Furthermore, the magnitude of wetting may vary from little wetting for the wipes at the top of the stack to the wipes at the bottom of the stack being saturated, possibly even submerged in the liquid cleaning composition at the closed end of the package. The degree of wetting as a function of distance from the closed end of the container can depend on the nature of the capillaries of the materials constituting the wipe.
Problems of non-uniform wetting of the wipes with cleaning composition include varying product performance of the wipes as the consumer uses up the stack of wipes. Most detrimentally, the wipe at the top of the stack may be the least wetted of all of the wipes and may not have a sufficient volume of liquid cleaning composition to perform as desired. The consumer's first use of a wipe can be a poor experience, which may undermine the consumer's confidence in and satisfaction with the wipe. Wipes at the bottom of the container may be saturated, feel soggy, and drip liquid cleaning composition, resulting in a negative user experience.
In view of the problem of non-uniform wetting of premoistened wipes in a container, there is a continuing unaddressed need for a package of premoistened wipes for which the wipes are wetted uniformly.